April 05, 2020

How to Sew a Simple Homemade Face Mask (a very detailed tutorial!)


With federal recommendations going into effect a couple of days ago to wear face masks when people are in public due to the coronavirus, I made some face masks for my family. And then some other people started asking me to make them. I made several, but I'm getting burnt out, so I wanted to make this tutorial to show exactly how I made mine. And anyone with basic sewing machine experience can make one--it's very simple!

This is made of regular fabric and is three layers thick. There is a pipe cleaner across the bridge of the nose so that you can push it down snug to your face. It's held on to your face with hair ties that loop around your ears. And it covers a good amount of your face--very important!

I wrote all the details on the (trillion) photos below, but there is one thing I'd like to note beforehand about hair ties. I started out using the thick elastic hair ties that I like to use for my hair, but after wearing a mask for a couple of hours today (I had a big grocery shopping trip) I found that it was bothering my ears.

I bought some of the thinner hair ties and used those today--I think they are more comfortable, especially after I added the pipe cleaner across the bridge of the nose. However, Jerry likes the thicker banded elastic. It's all personal preference!

These fit my family well, but obviously everybody is different, so it may need some adjustments depending on your own face. If the thick hair ties are uncomfortable, then try the thin ones. The thin ones may make the mask feel too loose, which also isn't a good fit.

But anyway, here is how I made them!

I downloaded a pattern (and I originally made some as-is from the pattern, but I found it too time consuming and had a lot of unnecessary steps. I also didn't like that there wasn't a spot to put something across the nose to hold it in place. (They recommended using double stick tape to hold it down)

So, the only part of the pattern that I used was one of the "face" pieces. If you download the pattern, the only piece you'll need to cut out is "Face 1" or Face 2" (it doesn't matter which, if you follow the instructions I have here).

Here is a link to the pattern pieces. Just print out the piece that says "Face 1" (or "Face 2"--same thing). Cut out that pattern piece, and then use it as I show below. Good luck! (I hope this is detailed enough... I used way too many photos!

















































11 comments:

  1. Wow! To all of THAT work! I am amazed!!! I sewed a button once :) I think it probably took me as much time as all of your masks combined... Which is why I'm not sewing my own masks, LOL.

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  2. Thanks for posting this tutorial. I like your design better than the one I have been using. You can also use a coffee filter in the center but you have to leave a side open to insert it.

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  3. cool tutorial.......I think you do a great job walking people through projects and things you're doing.

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  4. great! thanks for including the very important cat test step :)

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  5. Amazing job! I'm about to sew some for my family...including 2 for little kids. We'll see how that goes. Haha!

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  6. Those look awesome. I've read somewhere that you should chose two different fabrics/colors so you'll know which side touched your face and which side was exposed to the air.

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  7. Is there a way to leave a part open for a filter? I love the ease of your mask but I was under the impression they should have a place to insert a removable "filter".

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    Replies
    1. Yes, if you follow the instructions in the link I provided for the pattern piece, there are complete instructions for making one with a filter pocket. I made a few of them for my family, but they took a very long time to do and I found them hard to breathe through. Using pillowcase fabric works almost as well; but using the three layers of cotton fabric like I have here is enough for things like going to the grocery store, etc. For hospitals, they want the pockets for filters.

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  8. AnonymousMay 04, 2020

    Where do I get pattern for mask? Please let me know. I really appreciate it very much.

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    Replies
    1. If you follow the instructions from the top of the post, you'll find all the info you need :)

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  9. I'm not a seamstress! How would I go about making a bigger and a smaller pattern?
    Any suggestions would be great, thanks

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